Thanks Obamacare! Health Insurance Premiums Are Projected To Spike Dramatically Once Again In 2018

Are you ready for your health insurance premiums to go up again? Ever since Obamacare became law, health insurance premiums have been rising dramatically year after year. In 2016, one study found that the average Obamacare premium rose by about 24 percent, and similar increases have been seen all around the nation in 2017. As you will see below, large premium hikes are on tap for 2018 as well, and rates are going to continue to rise until lawmakers finally do something about this nightmare.

But even though the Republicans in Congress can’t get their act together, at least President Trump is trying to do what he can on his own…

President Trump proclaimed Friday that his goal is to dismantle his predecessor’s health care plan, hours after his administration suddenly announced that it would halt subsidy payments to insurers.

“ObamaCare is a broken mess,” Trump tweeted. “Piece by piece we will now begin the process of giving America the great HealthCare it deserves!”

Of course Democrats are in quite a panic now that the subsidy payments have been shut off.

In fact, one member of the Senate actually accused President Trump of committing “health-care arson”…

Trump’s decision, announced Friday after months of criticizing the payments as an insurance industry bailout, will throw in doubt the private insurance exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats vowed to use year-end negotiations on the federal agency budgets as a leverage point to reinstate the payments, vowing to pin the political blame on Republicans if premiums skyrocket next year.

“This is the equivalent of health-care arson. He is literally setting the entire healthcare system on fire just because the president is upset that the United States Congress won’t pass a repeal bill,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on “Fox News Sunday.

Actually, if anyone should be accused of destroying our healthcare system it is the Democrats.

Since Obamacare was first passed, many Americans have seen their health insurance premiums more than double.

And more rate increases are coming in 2018. Here in Idaho, it is being projected that Obamacare premiums will rise next year by an average of 38 percent…

Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho state Department of Insurance, announced today that health insurers offering plans on Idaho’s state insurance exchange have proposed premium rate increases next year averaging 38 percent. “I am deeply disappointed and frustrated to share these rates,” Cameron said in a news release; you can read it here. “I understand how difficult it will be for Idahoans to afford reasonable coverage, especially those without a subsidy.”

That is absolutely insane!

And for the most popular silver plans, the average rate increase here in Idaho is going to be around 50 percent…

Idaho Statesman reporter Audrey Dutton reports that the largest increases are proposed in the “silver” plans, which are the most popular ones on the exchange, falling mid-range in pricing and benefits between the lower-level “bronze” plans and the high-end “gold” plans. Silver plans are showing average increases of 50 percent in premiums; they range from a low of 40 percent at Blue Cross to 69 percent at SelectHealth.

Idaho families simply cannot afford these sorts of rate increases, and that is why one of my top priorities as a member of Congress will be to repeal Obamacare immediately.

Of course Idaho is far from alone when it comes to enormous premium increases. Out on the east coast, residents of Maryland will also see huge Obamacare rate increases in 2018…

The cost of premiums for plans sold on the state’s health exchange will soar for 2018, adding to questions about the stability and affordability of the health insurance program known as Obamacare.

State regulators announced Tuesday that they have approved average rate increases of just over 23 percent to nearly 50 percent, depending on the plan and carrier, increases that surely will burden consumers who get no government subsidies but also potentially still leave insurers in the red.

And we find the exact same thing happening when we look at the middle of the country. For example, just look at the rate increases that are projected for Illinois…

The Illinois Department of Insurance submitted rates to the federal government Wednesday that would increase the average cost of the lowest-priced silver plans by 35 percentstatewide. The lowest-priced bronze-level plans would increase, on average, by 20 percent, and the lowest-priced gold plans would increase by 16 percent, according to a department analysis obtained by the Tribune.

Most American families are essentially living paycheck to paycheck at this point, and so there is no way that they can afford these types of rate increases.

As a nation, we already spend more per capita on healthcare than anyone else in the entire industrialized world, and yet health insurance premiums continue to rise far faster than the overall rate of inflation year after year.

Our healthcare system is completely and utterly broken, and the more that the federal government interferes the worse things get.

50 years ago, healthcare was very affordable, and we had the greatest healthcare system on the entire planet. We need a 100% repeal of Obamacare, and we desperately need to return to free market principles. That is what I plan to fight for, and this is why we simply cannot allow the Democrats to be victorious in 2018.

If the Democrats regain control of either the House or the Senate in 2018, they will completely block any further attempts to dismantle Obamacare, and our healthcare system will continue to rapidly deteriorate.

We have a population that is rapidly aging and a healthcare system that is already overburdened. Getting our healthcare system fixed is a pressing national priority, and let us hope that these health insurance rate increases will be enough to send hordes of extremely angry conservative voters to the polls for the mid-term elections.